A new public school is coming to Sunnyside and it's being built from the ground up. P.S. 313 will be located at 45-45 42nd Street and will house approximately 430 students from pre-K through 5th grade.

The school will cost approximately $43 million and construction should b complete by 2014. The 77,000-square-foot school will have 15 classrooms - two set aside for special education students - rooms for the arts and sciences, gymnasium/auditorium, and a library.

Macare-Bison Architects said in a statement that the design is specifically planned for the dense area. To give students an outdoor space, the facility will have rooftop play yard.

Along with a new building, Sunnyside residents will be getting a new clock tower which will be displayed on the exterior of the school.

Steve Zimmerman, a Sunnyside resident and founder of two charter schools in western Queens, said a smaller school is a good idea. Zimmerman is also the director of the Open School Project, and said that smaller class sizes are needed.

“The willingness of the Department of Education to put money into small schools is a good thing,” Zimmerman said. “Smaller schools is just a great thing.”

Although school overcrowding is a problem in Sunnyside, Zimmerman said that other areas of Queens are much worse. However, he said that Sunnyside is an up-and-coming neighborhood. Zimmerman said he is noticing more and more people moving to the neighborhood from Brooklyn because they are being priced out.